The Dutch Observatory

It has been coudy and windy but finally, the clouds gave way and the wind gusts slowed down.  Except for the high winds in the jetstream and the associated turbulence, the conditions were OK.  I was looking for the bright spot around CM 145, but at the time Saturn cleared the trees around my house, I missed it.  Titan however was in the FOV, which made up for it.

Tonight’s forecast was better in stability and transparency. So had to give Saturn another try before the weather would turn again.  The image taken just before midnight February 6, local time, shows a little more banding because of the increase in stability as well as transparency.

Well, January was shot for observations with the CPC because of a defective AZ motor.  The replacement motor sent was an ALT motor with cables which were too short to be used for RA.  So in the first week of February I got the correct stuff.  Saturn rose nice and around midnight I made a few images.  The stability and seeing started out being relative nice, but detoriated as the imaging went on.  And because the 23 degrees F.  made me wonder what I was doing out there. So I went back inside, instead of waiting for it to clear up again and try for more…..

It was still freezing early in the morning, but here another image of Saturn from this morning.  In addition to the temperature, a slight breeze and high clouds put a damper on the fun of imaging….. 

Anyway, this image is just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Happy Turkey Day!!!

Jupiter is getting too low to image from my home, so have to start focussing on Saturn. The forecast for last night was great, but when I finished the setup at 4:30am this morning, a front of clouds was moving in. The temperature was freezing and my fingers felt like they froze off…. Around 5:45am I started shutting my laptop down, but than noticed an area opening up so got ready again.

This is my first Saturn of this apparition season. Not great, but I am happy with the result. Hopefully it will get better when I can spend more time on the imaging under a little higher temperatures .